Going ‘Chimp Crazy,’ Exploring the Oceans with National Geographic, TCM Salutes Jerry Lewis, Terry McMillan Night on Lifetime

Series Premiere

10/9c

SUNDAY: “I would give my life for him,” says Tonia Haddix of her attachment to an adult chimp, Tonka, who enjoyed fame in his youth in movies including George of the Jungle. Tonia’s obsessive dedication to her chimps, and her enmity towards PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which lobbies to have these captive “pets” transferred to an accredited sanctuary, provide the core to an outrageous and weirdly affecting four-part docuseries from Tiger King director-producer Eric Goode. His notoriety from the Netflix series prompts him to hire an undercover “proxy director” to bond with Tonia as her story gets even more bizarre, after Tonka goes missing and Tonia is suspected of harboring the animal. Actor Alan Cumming, who appeared with Tonka in 1997’s Buddy, gets involved, adding $10,000 to a reward for information on Tonka’s whereabouts. Chimp Crazy also explores the underground trade in exotic animals, with cautionary tales of people whose ownership of hard-to-control adult chimps leads to violent tragedy.

Series Premiere

SUNDAY: Few series illustrate National Geographic’s mission better than this six-part exploration of the ocean’s depths and the ecosystems that sustain their inhabitants, whose behaviors we’re still studying in fascination. James Cameron (Titanic) narrates and is executive producer of the series set aboard the OceanXplorer, a state-of-the-art research vessel equipped with submersibles and a helicopter to observe the sea’s creatures from above and way below. In the first hour (two episodes air weekly over three Sundays), the team of researchers, marine biologists and technical crew heads to the Caribbean waters of the Dominican Republican, where humpback whales migrate from the North Atlantic to mate, breed and give birth. In a wrenching sequence, the team watches as a mother humpback and her baby calf are attacked by a school of killer orcas. “Look at that, magnificent and terrifying,” marvels an observer from his helicopter perch. The second hour visits the Azores, where submersibles witness the hunting grounds of the sperm whale a mile below the surface.

6am/5c

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Once known as the “King of Comedy,” actor-director-producer-writer Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) finally earns 24 hours in the TCM spotlight, starting with his 1970 military farce Which Way to the Front, followed by five of his films partnered with Dean Martin. The prime-time lineup is devoted to some of his best-known solo works: 1963’s The Nutty Professor (8/7c), 1961’s The Ladies Man (10/9c) and The Disorderly Orderly (midnight/11c). On Sunday, TCM turns its attention to one of the channel’s eternal favorites: Katharine Hepburn.

Movie Premiere

8/7c

SATURDAY: Lifetime goes all in on the Terry McMillan brand of female empowerment and escapism, bookending a new made-for-TV movie (co-executive produced by McMillan and star Garcelle Beauvais) with screenings of the hit films based on her bestsellers Waiting to Exhale (5:30 pm/4:30c) and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (10/9c). In Tempted for Love, Beauvais is Ava, a famous chef who leaves Europe to tend to a relative in South Carolina, where she falls hard for a driver (Vaughn W. Hebron) who’s a lot less concerned about their 20-year age difference than she is. Exhale’s Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon co-star.

10/9c

SUNDAY: Justin Simien’s excellent and wide-ranging survey of Black cinema continues with a look at the blaxploitation trend of the 1970s, the emergence of groundbreaking comic talent with Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy and the noisy arrival of director Spike Lee. Simien describes his first reaction upon seeing Lee’s 1989 breakthrough Do the Right Thing: “The first time that I really make the connection that cinema is our legacy.”

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• TV Movie Marquee: Hallmark Channel goes exotic with A Costa Rican Wedding (Saturday, 8/7c), in which clumsy maid of honor Emily (Rhiannon Fish) seeks her best friend’s rings, purloined by local monkeys, with the help of her rival, best man Ryan (Christopher Russell), who says he know his way around the tropical paradise. On Great American Family, the uplifting Nothing Is Impossible (Saturday, 8/7c) depicts an NBA team that announces open auditions, inspiring a janitor (David A.R. White) to pursue his lifelong dream.
• Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins (Saturday, 8/7c, Oxygen): The former Manhattan prosecutor presents a third season of true-crime accounts of relationships that take a deadly turn, starting with the case of missing pregnant mom Manjit Panghali. Followed by the Season 3 premiere of The Real Murders of Atlanta (9/8c), with Atlanta P.D. detectives investigating the 2009 shooting death of pro boxer Vernon Forrest.
• CBS News Sunday Morning (Sunday, 9 am/8c, check local listings): 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl interviews author Carl Hiaasen, whose novel Bad Monkey has been winningly adapted for Apple TV+, starring Vince Vaughn.
• Industry (Sunday, 9/8c, HBO): How embarrassing for the IPO launch of a green-energy tech company to experience an immediate power blackout. The ensuing financial whiplash creates chaos and panic as the Pierpoint brokers work feverishly to keep investors in check. Things get especially tense for Lumi CEO Henry Muck (Kit Harington) and his feckless handler, Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey).
• Snowpiercer (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC): Layton (Daveed Diggs) and his crew are blindsided when Admiral Milius (Clark Gregg) makes an ultimatum: Swap Layton’s kidnapped child Liana for Big Alice and its life-preserving engine. Even worse is the discovery of whom Milius is aligned. With the trains now coupled, a plot for escape is hatched, but not without great personal risk.
• SEAL Team (Sunday, streaming on Paramount+): Bravo Team has been upgraded “from deplorable to deployable,” quips Sonny (A.J. Buckley) when the brass assigns the unit to work with the DEA in Thailand to disrupt the fentanyl pipeline from China. It’s a “new era of warfare,” explains Lt. Davis (Toni Trucks): “Invisible tactics with global consequences.” In other words, no shooting allowed. Jason’s (David Boreanaz) crew is ready to get back to work, but are they being set up to fail?